It has been recognized that a shoe with an interchangeable or exchangeable heel can offer versatility while providing several advantages over having multiple pairs of shoes. Such advantages include reducing the number of shoes one has, reducing money spent on shoes, and being able to use one pair of shoes with many outfits and/or for many situations. A shoe that can offer different looks and/or styles through an interchangeable or exchangeable heel would thus be a welcome addition to most shoe collections.
As such, various shoes have been developed that are configured to allow a heel to be releasably attached to a shoe body. This permits a wearer to exchange one heel for another. In order to accomplish this feat, the shoe body and heel must incorporate a manner of attaching and detaching a heel to the shoe body. This is achieved by a providing a releasable attachment structure incorporated into the shoe body and heel.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 7,185,448 B2 issued Mar. 6, 2007 to Schupbach, discloses a shoe with interchangeable heels. A sole of a shoe body has a sleeve and groove for receiving an elongated blade of an interchangeable heel. A latch is provided in the front of a heel portion of the interchangeable heel for connecting the heel portion to a stub that projects from the heel area of the sole. The latch provides releaseable connection of the heel portion to a front portion of the stub. However, since the latch is only holding a heel portion hanging from the elongated blade, it is not very robust. Moreover, the connection of the heel portion from the front of the heel does not positively hold the heel portion to the sole, especially the rear of the heel portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,026 issued Oct. 10, 1995 to Lewis, shows a shoe with exchangeable heels. A latch is mounted to sole proximate the heel area of the shoe body, while a top surface of a heel has a configured recess thereof. The latch includes a wedge portion and a leaf-spring attached to the wedge portion. The leaf-spring has a stepped detent and a lever biased by spring tension away from the wedge portion. The configured recess of the heel receives the wedge of the latch in a dove-tail connection, while an internal cavity of configured recess for housing the leaf-spring of the latch. Because the latch is carrying the entire load of the connection of the heel to the shoe body, the spring tension of the latch must be quite large. This makes the latch difficult to operate especially if the user cannot easily apply the force necessary to overcome the spring tension.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,578,075 issued Aug. 25, 2009 to Kemp, a shoe is disclosed having, among other features, a removable heel. The sole of the shoe body has a configured cutout which receives a complimentarily-shaped end structure of a heel. A spring latch is disposed in the sole at a front (i.e. towards a toe portion of the shoe) of an attached heel for releasably engaging a front portion of a heel. While the latch is incorporated into the sole of the shoe body and is easy to operate, the connection of the heel portion from the front of the heel does not positively hold the heel portion to the sole, especially the rear of the heel portion. This is why the shoe body incorporates the configured cutout that receives the complimentarily-shaped end structure of the heel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,320 issued Feb. 21, 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,365 issued Jun. 11, 1996 to Goldenberg et al., show a shoe with a removable and replaceable heel. A short shaft is attached to the sole surface of the shoe body that is adapted to fit into a short bore in a heel. A latch is provided between the short shaft and the heel for releasable attachment of the heel to the shoe body. However, since the latch is the connection between the heel and the shoe body, the spring tension of the latch must be quite large. This makes the latch difficult to operate especially if the user cannot easily apply the force necessary to overcome the spring tension.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need for a shoe having an exchangeable, interchangeable or replaceable heel, particularly a high-heeled shoe, having a robust but easily operable manner of connecting and detaching a heel to a shoe body.
The problems in the prior art addressed above, the desirables presented herein, and more are addressed by the present invention.